Luke 17:11-19
Nine of these lepers were Jews and one was a Samaritan.
These men had a miserable life, They had been totally abandoned by society.
They were homeless wanderers – forced to live in an isolated camp outside of town. By law lepers were required to stay at least 100 meters away from all other people. When people walked by, they had to yell, “Filthy, filthy!” to warn of their presence, it was a situation so sad and despicable that lepers had to live in anonymity.
Depending on how long they had been lepers, some had lost fingers, toes, ears, teeth, arms, and noses. His meat was raw and rotten, the stench was so unbearable that he had to live outside of civilization and confined to a leper camp. Because of the terrible leprosy, they wrapped themselves with cloths and shrouds of soft cloth, to cover their infected and rotten skin, they gave the appearance of walking mummies.
But what haunted these outcasts most of the time was the lingering memory of loved ones they had to leave behind when the priest pronounced them lepers. They lost their loving wives and the laughing, adorable children who once frolicked with them. They lost homes, careers, respect, and all hope of being useful. Some of them had probably been faithful Jews, rooted in the tradition of the church. But now they were camping outside this nameless town, leading a bleak, lonely existence of unspeakable shame.
Leprosy in the Bible has always been a type of sin!
Scripture shows the leper as a type of the sinner living in shame – weakened and wasted by the terrible effects of sin.
They were asking for mercy! It was as if they were pleading, “Jesus – how can you do something so pitiful and not have mercy? How could you turn your back on us?
In the spiritual life, we can apply that a leper represents the man without God, living tied to sin, curse and its consequences. It is living under defeat, failure, despair and destruction. To live under the curse of sin (leprosy) is to live without peace, away from our loved ones due to a sad and painful separation and marital destruction, in economic poverty, it is to be mutilated by disease, vices, poverty and addictions; some lose their children, others their wife or husband, someone the premature death of a loved one and others more lacking in peace and happiness.
Somehow they knew about Jesus and the miracles that he worked, perhaps some of the lepers that he had previously healed gave testimony to these ten lepers and they went out to meet him and with determination near the road they cried out to Jesus and worshiped him for a miracle . and with great compassion Jesus said: “Go show yourselves to the priests.” (Luke 17:14).
DEMONSTRATION OF FAITH.“Go and show yourselves to the priests” if we notice Jesus did not say a word, be healed, but rather the expression go and show yourselves to the priests is a sample of a sequence of actions that every seeker of healing must carry out. It is talking about moving in demonstration of faith.
Can you imagine what these lepers must have thought? “Return to the priest? But he was the one who examined us and declared us unclean! He kicked us out of town, took us away from our families and sent us into isolation. How to return to Him in the temple if we are lepers.
1. Come out of the shadows of sin.
Recognize your situation of sin and condition in which you find yourself and come to Jesus as the only Savior.
2. Believe Jesus.
They received a very challenging word, “Go to the temple and to the priest. But at that time they were still sick, it was a time to reject the word or fulfill it and go to the temple with the risk of being stoned for violating the restrictions given to a leper; The ten decided to move in faith and walk towards the temple, and as they walked the miracle began to work on their illness and when they arrived at the temple they uncovered themselves and the cloths and could see themselves completely healthy. Glory to God! How important it is to believe God and what is written in his word, and move in faith despite the fact that when we are ministered we do not see an immediate effect, faith operates in the invisible and is certain of the things that we think are unattainable . If God speaks to you through a message, a dream, a prophecy about some miracle, he believes his word, hold on to his promises and God will fulfill them in the process of the days.
3. Move our faith into action.
The ten lepers walked immediately towards Jerusalem where on that mount of Zion was the temple and within it the priest ministered. Jerusalem is the holy city of God, Mount Zion is a figure of the things of heaven, the temple is the abode and house of God and the priest represents Jesus Christ as mediator before the father. All this teaches us that we must raise our eyes to heaven and relate to the things of God, live a spiritually consecrated life and turn to Jesus who is the only one in whom there is salvation and divine healing.
4. Go to the priest in the temple.
In Luke 5:14, Jesus had told a different leper: “Go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing, as Moses commanded, for a testimony to them.” (Luke 5:14). no leper could simply return to his home or church or covenant rights. There were certain things he had to do. First, he had to be declared clean by a priest – and that involved a very elaborate, detailed ceremony that tookto eight days. He had to be completely shaved, bathed and examined. Then came the sacrifices, sprinkling of blood and oil, anointing, offerings. And after all this, he had to wait eight more days before he could be restored to his family and his rights. Total, the process took sixteen days of incredible religious activity!
5. Recognition and adoration.
“He’s one of those ten lepers in town.” And when he approached, they heard him shouting: “Glory – glory to Jesus! I praise you!” It was the Samaritan! When he got to Jesus, he fell at his feet – and burst into praise and thanksgiving!
Jesus bowed his face to him and said: “Were not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? (Luke 17:17). He was asking, “Why only you? Where are your friends, the others I healed?
THE 9 LEPERS WERE RESTORED IN EVERYTHING BUT BEFORE JESUS
How many people only seek God’s favor, a healing, an economic blessing, to get out of a problem, but they do not want responsibilities or give up the old and past way of living according to the world and sin.
Now these nine lepers were eager to get on with their lives. They said, “I have to go back to my wife and family.
History does not show that of the 10 lepers, only one returned to Jesus to thank and worship him, an action that pleased Jesus. The extraordinary thing is that whoever returned to Jesus was a Samaritan people despised by the Jews and considered unclean. Jesus bowed his face to him and said: “Were not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? (Luke 17:17). He was asking, “Why only you? Where are your friends, the others I healed? We find that many seek Jesus only for the Miracles and others follow him for the food. You be a consecrated worshiper for the service of him.
– We will not trust in money or in the wealth that we may have.
– We will not glory in the instruction received, nor in the university we have attended.
– No, all this Paul came to consider as ‘garbage,’ and an obstacle to his work because it tended to dominate him.
– We will not rely on any gifts such as ‘personality,’ or general or special intelligence or ability.
– We will not rely on our own good conduct and morality.
– We will not trust in the least in the life we have led or lead.
There has to be a total liberation from all this. I repeat, it is feeling that we are nothing, that we have nothing, and that we raise our eyes to God in absolute submission to Him and in complete dependence on Him, in His grace and mercy.
To experience in a certain way what Isaiah felt when, before the vision, he said, ‘Woe is me!… I am a man of unclean lips’ – this is ‘poverty in spirit.’
CONCLUSION
So let’s ask ourselves these questions.
– Am I like that, poor in spirit?
– What do I think about myself when I see myself in the presence of God?
– In my life, what do I say, why do I ask, how do I think of myself?
How petty is this glorying in accidental things for which I am not responsible, this glorying in artificial things that will count for nothing on the great day when I stand before God. This poor me! The hymn says it very well, ‘Make this poor me decrease,’ and ‘O Jesus, increase you in me.’
How, then, does one become ‘poor in spirit’?
‘I must go out of the world, I must sacrifice the flesh and undergo hardships, I must mutilate the body.’ No, not at all, the more one does it the more self-aware one becomes and the less ‘poor in spirit.’
The way to become poor in spirit is to look to God. Read the Bible, read his Law, try to see what he expects of us, let’s see ourselves in front of Him.
– It is putting our eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ and seeing him as we see him in the Gospels. The more we do so the better we understand the reaction of the apostles when, seeing something he had just done, they said, ‘Lord, increase our faith.’ They felt that their faith was nothing. They felt that he was poor and weak. ‘Lord, increase our faith. We thought we had a little because we cast out demons and preach your word, but now we feel that we have nothing; increase our faith
– Let’s look at it; and the more we do it, the less hope we have in ourselves, and the more ‘poor in spirit’ we become. Let’s watch it, endlessly.
Let’s look at the saints, those who have been most filled with the Spirit. But above all, let us turn our eyes to Him, and then we will have nothing to do with ourselves. Everything will be done. We cannot truly lay eyes on Him without feeling absolute poverty and emptiness. Then we will tell him: “From evil wanting to free me, only you can save me,” “Seeking life and forgiveness, Blessed Christ, here I am.” Empty, hopeless, naked, vile. But He is enough for everything.
The kingdom of God is for everyone who feels their need, who has the desire to remain.
Finally when one looks poor before God, God says in Rev. 2:9 “I know your deeds, and your tribulation, and your poverty (but you are rich)”
It is God who recognizes your greatness, your value, your desire to seek him, that is where Basque lies first to God and everything comes in addition and then you will be blessed.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”
Source: www.centraldesermones.com